Anti-laundry laws – the Chinese fight back

Collectively, Chinese immigrants to the U.S. were the most directly affected and restricted by prejudice through the enactment of local, and later national laws, designed to drive out the Chinese. The hotbed of anti-Chinese legislation rested in the San Francisco area, where year after year, new laws sought to penalize and prevent the Chinese to assimilate.

As Jean Pfaelzer and others have noted, the Chinese fought back against the targeted prejudice, most often through legal means and resources supported through the Chinese Six Companies. As an example of their tenacity to challenge this onslaught, the case of Yick Wo is worth noting. Wo fought against an early, racist anti-laundry law enacted in San Francisco in 1880.